SANDSFOOT AND PORTLAND CASTLES. 29 



life to the office of gunner (vibrellator) in the " house commonly 

 known as the blockhouse of Weymouth," at a fee of 6d. the 

 day (Patent rolls, 33 Henry VIII., part 3). This grant may 

 serve to date approximately the completion of the building, 

 as an official list of the King's fortresses in 1540 includes 

 Portland but is silent as to the Weymouth blockhouse, from 

 which it can be inferred that the latter was at all events 

 unfinished in that year. 



In June, 1545, Philip Bonde, then master-gunner of 

 Sandefote Castle, was to receive one last, i.e. twenty -four 

 barrels, of serpentine powder, to be equally divided between 

 that place and Portland (cf. Acts of the Privy Council). This 

 is perhaps the first recorded instance of the use of the name 

 by which we now know the ruins. 



During the reign of Edward VI., John Wadham (of 

 Catherstone) is mentioned in the Privy Council MBS. of 1550 

 as being the Captain of Sandsfoot, and two years later he is 

 instructed to dispense with the services of one of the five 

 gunners then on duty in the Castle ; this was presumably 

 from motives of economy, as a similar order was addressed 

 to Portland. 



About thirty years later, a comparatively short period, 

 some of the external masonry and other portions of this fort 

 already needed reconstruction, not, indeed, from battering 

 by enemies, but from the wash of the tides. After the damage 

 had been made good, Sir George Trenchard sent to the 

 Exchequer an account of the work done there between 1584 

 and 1586, from which I have briefly abstracted a few 

 items 



New making two platforms, viz., the lower and higher keeps, 

 116 8s. 3d. 



Making 4 lead pipes within and one without the barbican, and other 

 pipes for the upper platform and the gatehouse. 



Filling up the great gulf which was wrought by the sea on the east 

 side of the castle, and building a wall of ashlar upon the same, in height 

 22ft. and in length 60ft. 



Repairing the gate of the outer ward. 



